THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
system of binding, the top of the head
was pressed back and down and the base
forced upward. The forehead was con
sidered the seat of individuality and initi
ative, and anything done to suppress its
growth encouraged devotion to the needs
of the mass and the public welfare.
The cathedral of Tiahuanaco, with its
lofty nave and red-tiled double apse reach
ing to a level with the big front tower,
is worthy of mention. Just how ancient
it is is difficult to learn, for Spanish his
torians differ, but Spain's clericals were
quick to establish priests and erect churches
following the Conquest, and towns of the
lake district were among the first, after
Cuzco, to receive such attention. It is
likely, therefore, that the cathedral of
Tiahuanaco is from 300 to 350 years old
(see illustration, page 236).
It contains no seats or benches. Wor
shipers kneel on the stones with which
the ground is roughly paved, or before
the harsh boarding in front of the enor
mous altar of hammered silver. Of the
26 old Spanish paintings upon the walls,
depicting various happenings and teach
ings in the life of our Lord, 17 are very
large, nearly 12 by 15 feet.
THE FOOTBALL INVADES HISTORY
Outside the church gates stand two great
idols fashioned among the Tiahuanacu
ruins. While, I stood in contemplation
before one of them, suddenly a very mod
ern football landed upon its worn stone
nose and bounced off into the eager arms
of ragged little boys playing in the square
between the church and market place.
History was far from their thoughts.
As we were leaving Tiahuanacu small
boys grew clamorous in their desire to
sell us monolitos. We bought many,
ranging from 5 to 35 cents (about 2 to
12 American pennies) each, depending
on their size and excellence of workman
ship. The carvings, which consisted chiefly
of two of the best idols, were in the like
ness of the jaguar, and had been done in
soapstone from the adjacent mountains.
When this soft stone is long exposed to
the air, it grows harder, and the efforts
of the youthful sculptors often result in
rather good and lasting work.
It is a 14-mile hike to Guaqui port, and
we started off at 9 o'clock in the morning
with two boys driving a well-laden burro.
At 12:30 we were in old Spanish Gua
qui, and a half hour later we had reached
its lake port, two miles farther on.
Save for the railway station, a small
hotel, quarters for a regiment of in
fantry, and the customhouse, there is very
little to the port. Its importance has
steadily decreased since the opening, some
years ago, of a quick railway service be
tween La Paz and Arica, Chile; so that
a great part of the freight and passen
ger traffic formerly landing at Mollendo
and reaching La Paz via Lake Titicaca
no longer comes over that route.
THE WORLD'S HIGHEST NAVIGABLE LAKE
Three steamers ply the waters of Titi
caca between Guaqui, in Bolivia, and the
port of Puno, Peru. The largest, the
Inca, 228 feet long, with 30-foot beam,
was built in Hull, England, brought to
the Bolivian plateau in sections, assem
bled there, and then put into service on
Titicaca, the world's highest navigable
lake (see illustration, page 243).
But we travelers in Aymara Land had
no ambition to take one of these steamers
to Copacabana, for this would have meant
a delay of two or three days in Guaqui;
so we negotiated for a sailing vessel.
We were not as well versed then either
about geography or about the Aymara
mind as we were soon to become, and
when a coppery-tinted son of Belial prom
ised that his boat would land us without
fail in Copacabana harbor before sunset,
we believed him and went to lunch in
the Guaqui hostelry with light hearts.
What we should have done was to have
tied a rock about his neck and dropped
him into the lake some 200 feet from
shore, where the cows of the port could
have trampled him into the mud on their
way out to feed in the reed marshes.
That, however, is another story-a try
ing prelude to our journey to one of the
world's greatest shrines, Mary, the Vir
gin of Copacabana (see, also, text, page
213), and to the Islands of the Sun and
Moon, set like gems in that great cobalt
tinted lake, earliest seats of the old Inca
rulers, who created a mighty empire be
fore the advent of the Spaniards.
Our minds were still too full of ancient
Tiahuanacu to deal adequately with the
intricacies of the Aymara mind in Ay
mara Land.
256